Intern in the Incinerator

A body is found in the incinerator at the Jeffersonian.

Angela recognizes the victim just from the charred skull. The dead woman was an intern in the building and they had coffee a couple of times. [Is this a Sandra Levy take off? Was she having an affair with a powerful man? Just from the show title, I expected as much.]

Sure enough, Angela reveals that the intern, Kristen, was seeing a mystery married man who worked there.

Bones is telling Kristen's father his daughter is dead. I don't know why she'd be performing that task alone. Reardon (the father) taught a class of hers once, so maybe that's why. But she's not always known for her tact in these "breaking the news" situations.

Bancroft is the head of the Jeffersonian who has returned from a trip to handle the uproar over the murder. He observes the people at the lab and tells Booth that scientists are difficult by nature, combative, skeptical, resistant. Booth says, "I've noticed."

Cam asks/orders Booth to come to her father's 60th birthday party, because she doesn't want to field questions about why she's still alone and never told them that she and Booth broke up. [Not what I need in a subplot.]

A reluctant Booth says she's an adult and can't live her life based on what people think. She says, "Seeley, it's not going to be like this forever. One day he'll die."

Bones says she's never told anyone his/her child was dead, though she's been there when Booth did it. She says it's extremely unpleasant. The father didn't know who the intern, Kristen, was seeing.

The Jeffersonian interns were vying for a scholarship. The rivals may have had a motive to kill Kristen. It should have been clear to Booth that Kristen was dating an older or influential man. Otherwise why would she keep it a secret from her father and colleagues. So, I'm surprised when he asks her young peer if he's married. The intern replies that he's gay.

Hodgins finds that Kristen was dumped from the office suites at the top of the buildings. "It's always the suits baby," he says. Booth says that he, Booth, wears suits. Hodgins says, "yes. Yes you do."

Booth and Cam complain about the squints who think that the murder had something to do with the artifacts that Kristen was examining in the Gormagon room, where the cannibal artifacts are. Booth thinks that will change the whole focus of the investigation. They (the squints) always tell "us" (Booth and Cam) not to jump to conclusions, but when they do, it's a quantum leap. Again, I think Cam is a squint and she has told the guys not to jump to conclusions too and to give her facts. So, when they draw their us v. them lines, I'm not sure that Cam properly belongs on the side the writers are putting her on.

Cam bosses Bones around, as she does everyone else. Telling him he better answer her question about why he wants to know where a doctor's office is located in the building (he found the doctor's number on Kristen's cell phone) and also letting him know he can't get out of going to her father's party. If the only power she has over him is friendship, I don't know why she takes that didactic tone with him in both work and friendship.

Like Booth, Cam doesn't think the cannibal is the killer, because the victim wasn't eaten and wasn't male, the cannibal's preference. Booth discusses the fact that the squints are harping on it being Gormagon with Cam.

As Booth questions Aldridge, he discovers the doctor was neighbors with Ted Kennedy [my poor departed dear] and enjoyed other luxuries. Booth looks at a magazine article on the doctor, fingering it as he questions him and says he regrets not having paid more attention in school. Aldridge is arrogant and tells Booth that intelligence is not a matter of will, so it's not a character flaw to be less smart. Booth says, "Yeah, listen I appreciate the pep talk." Nice delivery from DB.

Aldridge, the doctor, says that his wife's family is generous, that's how he can afford so much beyond his salary. Booth wonders how generous they would be if they knew he was "boinking" the intern. Aldridge asks if they taught him that at Quantico: spring vulgarities on the suspect and he will confess all? Booth says, "Are you confessing all?" Does Booth want a confession for the affair or for murder. Booth doesn't get to answer. Bones calls him into the next room.

Showy direction in this episode. It shouldn't call attention to itself the way it does. When we first saw Bancroft, it was as if through a keyhole. Then, when they find blood in Aldrige's office, Booth asks if Aldridge will come willingly and the camera focuses on one loop of a hand cuff held in Booth's raised hand. Why?

[LOST A BIG CHUNK OF MY LIVE BLOG, OVER 30 MINUTES, CAN'T RECREATE ALL THE DETAILS]

Booth wants Bones to interrogate Aldridge, because Aldridge doesn't think Booth is smart. Bones tells Booth he's smart and he says "thanks," he knows. He tells her to refer to the victim by her first name. Bones says that that doesn't work with a serial killer, because they're a socio path. She links the murder to the cannibal, Gormagon (from the Widow's Son episode) and Booth says this has nothing to do with that. He tells her to get inside and she orders him to stop bossing her around and slaps his hand. Bones goes in there and tells Aldridge that he can't intimidate her with his superior knowledge, because she's smarter than he is.

Booth watches the interrogation from the other side of the glass partition. Afterwards, he puts on street clothes and meets with Cam. Her hair is down and she is in a dress. He says she looks great and insists that he's saying that as a friend, not a boyfriend. Her sister is picking them up, but is late. Booth defends her tardiness, but Cam is critical. He says he won't get in the middle of a family squabble. Cam says her sister, Felicia, is the jealous one.

When Felicia comes, as soon as Cam leaves, Felicia frets that she will be judged and Booth says that Cam's life is not so perfect. Felicia takes this to mean that there's trouble between them, calls Booth her poor baby and plants a big kiss on him, breaking apart just as Cam returns.

The next day, in the lab, Booth hangs out by Hodgins' area, wanting to talk to him man to man, the way Hodgins has sought Booth out in the past. He tells Hodgins about the kiss and Hodgins thinks the whole thing is amusing. He says that Booth has to tell Cam, before she finds out from her sister. Booth says this delicate juggling is more trouble now than when he and Cam actually were dating.

Cam talks to Bones about the interrogation and Bones doesn't know how Cam knows about it. Cam says Booth told her "while we were . . ." at dinner the other night. Her pause makes dinner sound like more than just dinner. Bones gives Cam a surprised look.

Later, she Hodgins and Booth are looking on the computer to see what Jeffersonian mail and packages Kristen was inventorying when she died, Hodgins and Bones discover that they don't have clearance to get into Kristen's files. Booth does. He uses Cam's password and says she won't mind. I wonder if this gives Bones another reason to think he and Cam are on intimate terms again. But like a needling child, Booth pokes Bones and says he knows her password too. "Daffodil." Why say it in front of Hodgins I wonder, since it is supposed to be secret. She says she never told him. He says that he has eyes. She changes her password and he guesses that she's putting in "daisy." That's her second favorite flower. He insists that he knows her and she should try a planet. She types and he guesses, "Jupiter."

They find Aldridge hung in an office. The lab determines it was not a suicide.

Later, Angela does a re-enactment which shows that Kristen wasn't stabbed like they'd thought. She was impaled. Her death was an accident. Bancroft comes in and tries to convince them that Aldridge killed Kristen accidentally and then hung himself. That's the story he wants to run with. They say that Aldridge did not take his own life. Annoyed with them, Bancroft says that that means that there's a serial killer still out there and that he'll come after Angela next, since she's the one who discovered Kristen's identity and her true manner of death. He tells Angela to "Be careful" as he leaves. I'm surprised that Hodgins doesn't get upset. Angela says that she thinks she's just been threatened. Hodgins just looks, more puzzled than angry with Bancroft.

Booth threatens to take out his gun and shoot Hodgins twice in the episode. Once it's just Hodgins and the other time it is Hodgins and Zach because of one of the experiments they did throwing a dummy off the roof. I guess that threat against them is going to be a running gag from Booth throughout the series.

When Booth finds her in the lab, Cam thanks him for coming to the party and says that he even managed to connect with Felicia. He confesses that Felicia kissed him.

"Like a peck on the cheek or a full meal?" Cam wants to know. Full meal, she guesses, from Booth's stuttering. Felicia thought she stole Booth away from Cam and Cam realizes that's why she was so nice.

Cam accuses him of kissing back and he says there was no kiss back. Ok, he bashfully admits that his lips may have parted for a second. Then, Felicia comes in. Felicia says that Booth didn't seem that into Cam, anyway. Booth says that they aren't really a couple anyway. They broke up a long time ago. Cam says, "If you want him take him." Felicia says she doesn't want him. Booth reacts: "you don't?" Felicia says no, she was just trying to get back at Cam for being so perfect.

They talk about missing lunch. Booth: "you two can have lunch after all this?" Felicia says, "please! Like you could ruin a meal?" I don't really like her streetwise tude. But Booth brings them together. When Booth wants to respond to Felicia, Cam tells him not to raise his voice to Felicia. "Let's go. Let him calm down. Wow," Cam says as she and her sister leave, united.

Felicia says, "Why did you guys break up? What did he do?" On her way out. An innocent Booth talks to himself, saying: "It wasn't me."

They have Cam give Bancroft a false lead about smuggling items into the Jeffersonian through the mail. Booth suspects Bancroft. Bones said there's no way, because he has a doctorate. Booth says that Dr. Kervorkian has a doctorate. His point being that doesn't mean you can't kill. But it's not Bancroft, but another doctor who takes the bait, in the trap they've set.

After cracking the case, Bones and Booth drink in his office. Good, because I was beginning to think that Bones probably felt left out, as if he had more in common with Cam than her. Perhaps, a part of her does think that.

They are playing some kind of drinking game, pretending to be Russian, taking shots and smashing the dixie cup after each one. He has a picture of RFK and JFK hanging in his office (is this linked to the drinking game, USSR and the Cuban Missile crisis?). Booth feels that Bones is upset not only because a "doctor" did it but because it happened in her house. Her favorite place. Her house of reason. The Jeffersonian.

She says it's not her favorite place. He says it is. How does he know? The same way he knew "daffodil."

He says he also knows she was hoping that it was gorgonzola, the cannibalistic serial killer. She is tired of him getting the name wrong. "Gormagon!"

The scientists, the squints and the eggheads wanted it to be a serial killer so it wouldn't be one of them. "Them?" asks Bones. Booth says, "You."

"Me?" asks Bones.

He says they were all offended that it was one of them. She says she is offended because . . . she pauses. He finishes, "Because you were betrayed by one of your own."

She says, "yes, are you going to betray me?" [Is she thinking of his ostensibly resumed affair with Cam when she asks this?] I thought she was going to say she was offended by the fact that he sees her as one of "them" and not one of him. This line between the squints and the others is only something they've been drawing in the last 2 episodes. He has alway considered them squints, but he and Cam haven't been aligned on one side and them on the other before now. Plus, even though she thought Kristen was a victim of a serial killer, it's not like she was that defensive about Aldridge being a suspect and she wasn't acting like she had a lot in common with him. In fact, Zach said that Aldridge told him that having a superior IQ didn't give him an excuse not to bathe. So, Aldridge was no friend of the squints.

But in answer to her question about whether he will betray her: He lifts his cup and says, "no."

I wanted to end the summary there, but things followed that I didn't really understand. Bones said that he won't betray her, half serious and then smiling as he handed her more liquor. I know that the moment was supposed to be humorous in part, but was it supposed to somewhat sincere too? I'm not sure. She takes the liquor and says, "Nonetheless, I will be vigilant." Well, what does that mean? Is she saying that even though he has promised not to betray her, she'll be on her guard. If that's what she means, is she saying this because of his relationship with Cam, which she suspects is deeper than he has told her? Is she saying that he might be keeping something from her, might hurt her, might be hiding a secret part of himself? Or is it just a russian drinking game joke that I can't understand.

Bones says "Nonetheless?" Is he wondering why she is using that term (which is not that fancy and one I use all the time) or is he wondering why she is questioning his promise not to betray her?

I don't know what they mean at all. If it's something frivolous, it's not really a funny ending. If they meant something serious and a little deep about trust, then I'd like to understand exactly what was imparted. Bad writing.
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Reading DB's tweets today (8/8/2012), I learned that the baby Bones has is going to be named Christine. I wonder if Booth had a hand in naming her, since that is a name with Christian connotations that I think Bones would avoid.